ST21 'Skinnydip' build, and boating adventures, Noosa, Australia

[glossieblack]

Got Feather Pram's #3 planks shaped up this afternoon.

[cape man]

Good call on the clamps.

[gonandkarl]

Hi,
I love your feather pram already and cannot wait to see progress pictures. I have one question : Will you be using epoxy wood flour glue at the lap connections and where they meet transom and bow only and no epoxy coating on the 4 mm Okoume planks just oil ? It interests me because I built children beds for my new born twins grand children which I also treated with 3 coats of linseed oil over 6 weeks. The beds will never be in contact with water contrary to your feather pram. Do you trust the oil to keep the boats planks safe of water ingress ?
Happy building on the feather pram and
Greetings from Karl

[glossieblack]

Hi,
I love your feather pram already and cannot wait to see progress pictures. I have one question : Will you be using epoxy wood flour glue at the lap connections and where they meet transom and bow only and no epoxy coating on the 4 mm Okoume planks just oil ? It interests me because I built children beds for my new born twins grand children which I also treated with 3 coats of linseed oil over 6 weeks. The beds will never be in contact with water contrary to your feather pram. Do you trust the oil to keep the boats planks safe of water ingress ?
Happy building on the feather pram and
Greetings from Karl

Thanks Karl.

Yes, I'm using epoxy glue to join the planks to each other and the transoms, as well as fixing in thwarts etc.

I'm leaning towards oiling, rather than epoxy coating followed by painting and/or varnishing, for protection and finish. Feather Pram will be stored under cover most of the time, so I'm confident regular oiling and touch-ups will protect her.

On small hand-crafted and clear-finished wooden boats, I prefer oiling's soft matt finish to varnish. However oiling hides few sins, whereas painting does, and varnishing can. This will end up dictating what finishes I choose.

Got the #4 plank patterns shaped this afternoon.

[Jeff]

Nice GB!!! Jeff

[Fuzz]

Step by step it is looking more boat like

[glossieblack]

Thanks Jeff and Fuzz.

Karl, in his Clinker Plywood Boat Building Manual, Iain Oughtred gives a recipe for a typical oil mixture of the kind used in Maine:

- 8 parts turpentine
- 8 parts boiled linseed oil
- 1 part pine tar
- 1 part Japan driers.

He goes on to observe:

"I saw an old (80+ years) canoe in Maine, that had been saturated with numberless coats of oil and turpentine. The wood looked so rich and fine, and was almost beginning to look translucent. Epoxy will never look like that, I thought".

[glossieblack]

Starting to get serious. Shaped up a final 1/6" okume marine plywood bottom plank from the MDF pattern. Yet to use block plan to produce final fairly curved edges.

Plank would not take the bend along the bow transom, so had to flatten profile, which subtly threw out other measurements.

After shaving with the block plane here and there, all good.

Holes caused by transom pin down nails will be covered by overlapping #1 lapstrake planks

Ready for gluing after final tweaks tomorrow.

[Fuzz]

Sitting here thinking of you lovingly caressing each plank until it is perfect put a smile on my face

[glossieblack]

Sitting here thinking of you lovingly caressing each plank until it is perfect put a smile on my face

Trimming the 1/6" okume bottom plank with a sharp block plan sure put a smile on mine.

Looking forward to cutting and fine tuning the okume #1 planks this afternoon.